John Knox

Portrait of Knox from the original in the possession of Lord Torpichen at Calder House.

For other people named John Knox, see John Knox (disambiguation).

John Knox (c. 1514 – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation. He was born a peasant, educated at the University of St Andrews, and worked as a notary-priest. Influenced by early church reformers such as Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart, he joined the movement to reform the Scottish church. He was caught up in the ecclesiastical and political maelstrom of the period which involved the murder of a cardinal, David Beaton, and the intervention of the regent of Scotland. He was eventually taken prisoner by French forces and on his release was exiled to England.

While in exile, he was licensed to work in the Church of England where he quickly rose in the ranks to serve the King of England, Edward VI as a royal chaplain. In this position he was able to bring a reforming influence on the text of the Book of Common Prayer. While in England, he met and married his first wife, Marjorie. He was forced to resign his position in the Church and leave the country when Mary Tudor ascended the throne and reestablished Roman Catholicism.

Knox fled, first to Geneva, Switzerland and then to Frankfurt, Germany. While in Geneva he gained experience and knowledge from John Calvin with regards to Reformed theology and Presbyterian polity. He created a new order of service which would eventually be adopted by the reformed church in Scotland. In Frankfurt he headed the English refugee church, but he was forced to leave over differences concerning the liturgy, thus ending his association with the Church of England.

On his return to Scotland, he led the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, assisted by the Scottish Protestant nobility. The movement was, in effect, a revolution, as the queen regent Mary of Guise was ousted. Knox participated in writing the new confession of faith and the ecclesiastical order for the newly created reformed church, the Kirk. He continued to serve as the religious leader of the Protestants during the reign of Mary Stuart, the queen of Scotland. In several interviews with the queen, he admonished her for her support of Catholic practices. Eventually, he openly attacked her in sermons while she was imprisoned and James VI was enthroned. He continued to preach until his final days. He is considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination.

Early life

John Knox was born sometime between 1505 and 1515. He was born in or near Haddington, the county town of East Lothian. His father, William Knox, was a peasant. All that is known of his mother is that her maiden name was Sinclair and that she died when John Knox was a child.

Knox was probably educated at the grammar school in Haddington. In his time, the priesthood was the only path for those whose inclinations were academic rather than mercantile or agricultural. He proceeded to further studies at the University of St Andrews or possibly at the University of Glasgow. He studied under John Major, one of the greatest scholars of the time. Records that refer to Knox as "Sir John Knox", the designation of a non-graduate priest, suggest that he was never awarded a degree.

Knox first appeared in public records as a priest and a notary in 1540. He was still serving in these capacities as late as 1543 when, in a notarial deed dated 27 March, he wrote in his own handwriting, "John Knox, minister of the sacred altar, of the Diocese of St Andrews, notary by Apostolic authority". Rather than taking up parochial duties in a parish, he became tutor to two sons of Hugh Douglas of Longniddry. He also taught John Cockburn of Ormiston's son. Both of these lairds had embraced the new religious ideas of the Reformation, which were sweeping Europe.

Embracing the Protestant Reformation

Knox did not record when or how he was converted to the Protestant faith, but perhaps the key formative influence on Knox was George Wishart. Wishart was a reformer who had fled Scotland in 1538 to escape punishment for heresy. He first fled to England where he preached against the veneration of the Virgin Mary and under further persecution, he took refuge in Germany and Switzerland. While on the Continent, he translated the First Helvetic Confession into English. He returned to Scotland in 1544, but the timing of his return was unfortunate. In December 1543, the Scottish parliament had passed an act for the summary dealing of heretics. The act was supported by the regent of Scotland, James Hamilton, and enforced by Cardinal David Beaton, the nephew of James Beaton. Wishart travelled throughout Scotland preaching in favour of the reformation and when he arrived in East Lothian, Knox became one of his closest associates. Knox acted as his bodyguard, bearing a two-handed sword in order to defend him. In December 1545, Wishart was seized on Beaton's orders by Patrick Hepburn and taken to the Castle of St Andrews. Knox was present on the night of Wishart's arrest and was prepared to follow him into captivity, but Wishart persuaded him against this course saying, "Nay, return to your bairns [pupils] and God bless you. One is sufficient for one sacrifice." Wishart was subsequently prosecuted by Beaton's Public Accuser of Heretics, John Lauder. On 1 March 1546, he was burnt at the stake in the presence of Cardinal Beaton.

It is not known exactly what happened to Knox immediately after Wishart's arrest. He may had gone into hiding or taken refuge in Longniddry. However, several months later he was still in charge of the pupils, the sons of Douglas and Cockburn, who wearied of moving from place to place while being pursued. A change of fortune occurred when on 29 May 1546, Cardinal Beaton was murdered by a gang of five persons in revenge for Wishart's execution.

The Castle of St Andrews, Cardinal Beaton's former residence, became a place of refuge for many Scottish Protestants. Knox, being a marked man, toyed with the idea of fleeing to Germany taking his pupils with him. However, their fathers sent word to bring them to the relative safety of the castle to continue their instruction in reformed doctrine. He arrived at the castle on 10 April 1547. Knox's powers as a preacher soon came to the attention of the chaplain of the garrison, John Rough. While Rough was preaching in the parish church on the Protestant principle of the popular election of a pastor, he proposed Knox to the congregation for that office. Knox did not relish the idea. According to his own account, he burst into tears and fled to his room. Within a week, however, he was giving his first sermon to a congregation that included his old teacher, John Major.

Confinement in the French galleys

Knox's chaplaincy of the castle garrison was not to last long. The murder of Cardinal Beaton had provoked the regent, James Hamilton, to request French assistance to bring the castle under his control. On 29 June 1547, twenty-one French galleys approached St Andrews under the command of Leone Strozzi, prior of Capua. The French besieged the castle and forced the surrender of the garrison on 31 July. The Protestant nobles and others, including Knox, were taken prisoner and forced to row in the French galleys. The galley-slaves were chained to benches and rowed throughout the day without a change of posture while an officer watched over them with a whip in hand. They sailed to France and navigated up the Seine to Rouen. The nobles, some of whom would have an impact later in Knox's life such as William Kirkcaldy and Henry Balnaves, were sent to various castle-prisons in France. Knox and the other galley-slaves continued to Nantes and stayed on the Loire throughout the winter. They were threatened with torture if they did not give proper signs of reverence when Mass was performed on the ship. Knox recounted an incident in which one Scot was required to show devotion to a picture of the Virgin Mary. It is probable that Knox, himself, was the one involved. The prisoner was told to give it a kiss of adoration. He refused and when the picture was pushed up to his face, the prisoner seized the picture and threw it into the sea, saying, "Let our lady now save herself; for she is light enough; let her learn to swim." After that, according to Knox, the Scottish prisoners were no longer forced to perform such devotions.

In summer 1548, the galleys returned to Scotland to scout for English ships. Knox's health was now at its lowest point due to the severity of his confinement. He was ill with a fever and others on the ship were afraid for his life. Even in this state, Knox recalled, his mind remained sharp and he comforted his fellow prisoners with hopes of release. While the ships were lying offshore between St Andrews and Dundee, the spires of the parish church where he preached appeared in view. James Balfour, a fellow prisoner, asked Knox whether he recognised the landmark. He replied,

Yes, I know it well; for I see the steeple of that place where God first in public opened my mouth to glory; and I am fully persuaded, how weak soever I now appear, that I shall not depart this life, till that my tongue shall glorify his godly name in the same place.

In February 1549, after spending a total of nineteen months in the galley-prison, Knox was released. It is uncertain how he obtained his liberty. It is probable that he was released because the French court no longer had any reason to fight the Scots. In April 1548, Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scotland, married the Dauphin François, the future King of France, Francis II, hence there was no longer any advantage to seek quarrels with the Scottish clergy.

Exile in England

Portrait titled "The Somerville Knox"

On his release, Knox took refuge in England. The Reformation in England was a less radical movement than its Continental counterparts, but there was a definite breach with Rome. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, and the regent of King Edward VI, Edward Seymour, were decidedly Protestant-minded. However, much work needed to be done to bring reformed ideas to the clergy and to the people. On 7 April 1549, Knox was licensed to work in the Church of England. His first commission was in Berwick. He was obliged to use the recently released Book of Common Prayer, which was mainly a translation of the Latin Mass into English and was largely left intact and unreformed. He therefore modified its use along Protestant lines. In the pulpit he preached Protestant doctrines with great effect as his congregation grew.

In England, Knox met his wife, Marjorie Bowes. Her father, Richard, was the younger brother of Sir Robert Bowes, a descendant of an old Durham family, the Bowes of Streatlam and her mother, Elizabeth, was a heiress of a Yorkshire family, the Askes of Richmondshire. Elizabeth Bowes presumably met Knox when he was employed in Berwick. Several letters reveal a close friendship between them. It is not recorded when Knox married Marjorie Bowes. Knox attempted to obtain the consent of the Bowes family, but Robert and Richard were opposed to the marriage. This is assumed to be the reason that Richard does not mention his daughter or Knox in his own will.

Towards the end of 1550, Knox was appointed a preacher of St Nicholas' Church in Newcastle. The following year he was appointed one of the six royal chaplains serving the king. On 16 October 1551, John Dudley overthrew Edward Seymour to become the new regent of the king. Knox condemned the coup d'etat in a sermon on All Saints Day. When Dudley visited Newcastle and listened to his preaching in June 1552, he had mixed feelings about the fire-brand preacher, but he saw Knox as a potential asset. Knox was asked to come to London to preach before the Court. In his first sermon, he advocated a change for the second edition of the Book of Common Prayer. The liturgy required worshippers to kneel during communion. Knox and the other chaplains considered this to be idolatry. It triggered a debate where Thomas Cranmer was called upon to defend the practice. The end result was a compromise in which the famous Black Rubric, which declared that no adoration is intended while kneeling, was included in the second edition.

Soon afterwards, Dudley, who saw Knox as a useful political tool, offered him the bishopric of Rochester. Knox refused, and he returned to Newcastle. Invited back to London several times in 1553, he gave his last sermon before King Edward VI on 12 April, at Westminster. He was also in London on 6 July when the young king died. Edward's successor, Mary Tudor, reestablished Roman Catholicism in England and restored the Mass in all the churches. Protestants such as Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, and Hugh Latimer were imprisoned in the Tower. With the country no longer safe for Protestant preachers, Knox left for the continent in January 1554 on the advice of friends. On the eve of his flight, he wrote:

Sometime I have thought that impossible it had been so to have removed my affection from the realm of Scotland that any realm or nation could have been equally dear to me. But God I take to record in my conscience that the troubles in the realm of England are double more dolorous unto my heart than ever were the troubles in Scotland.

From Geneva to Frankfurt and Scotland

The Reformation Wall in Geneva. From left: William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and Knox

Knox disembarked in Dieppe, France, and continued on to Geneva, Switzerland, where John Calvin had established his authority. When Knox arrived, however, Calvin was in a difficult position. He had recently authorised the execution of the scholar Michael Servetus for heresy, a ruling which had discredited Calvin among his peers; and all the cities of Switzerland were against him. When Knox asked him whether the people could rightfully disobey female rulers and ungodly or idolatrous rulers, Calvin gave cautious replies and referred him to the Swiss reformer Heinrich Bullinger in Zürich. Bullinger's responses were equally cautious; but Knox had already made up his mind. On 20 July 1554, he published a pamphlet attacking Mary Tudor and the bishops who had brought her to the throne. He also attacked the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, calling him "no less enemy to Christ than was Nero".

In a letter dated 24 September 1554, Knox received an invitation from a congregation of English exiles in Frankfurt, Germany to become one of their ministers. He accepted the call with Calvin's blessing. But no sooner had he arrived than he found himself in a conflict. The first set of refugees to arrive in Frankfurt had subscribed to a reformed liturgy and used a modified version of the Book of Common Prayer. More recently arrived refugees, however, including Edmund Grindal, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, favoured a stricter application of the book. When Knox and a supporting colleague, William Whittingham, wrote to Calvin for advice, they were told to avoid contention. Knox therefore agreed on a temporary order of service based on a compromise between the two sides. This delicate balance was disturbed when a new batch of refugees arrived that included Richard Cox, one of the principal authors of the Book of Common Prayer. Cox brought Knox's pamphlet attacking the emperor to the attention of the Frankfurt authorities, who advised that Knox leave. His departure from Frankfurt on 26 March 1555 marked his final breach with the Church of England.

After his return to Geneva, Knox was chosen to be the minister at a new place of worship petitioned from Calvin. In the meantime, Elizabeth Bowes wrote to tell him of her husband's death, asking him to return to Marjorie in Scotland, which he did at the end of August. Despite initial doubts about the state of the Reformation in Scotland, Knox found the country significantly changed since he was carried off in the galley in 1547. When he toured various parts of Scotland preaching the reformed doctrines and liturgy, he was welcomed by many of the nobility including two future regents of Scotland, James Stewart and John Erskine.

Though the queen regent, Mary of Guise, made no move to act against Knox, his activities caused concern among the church authorities. The bishops of Scotland viewed him as such a threat to their authority that they summoned him to appear in Edinburgh on 15 May 1556. He was accompanied to the trial by so many influential persons that the bishops decided to call the hearing off. Knox was now free to preach openly in Edinburgh. William Keith, the Earl Marischal, was so impressed that he urged Knox to write to the queen regent. Knox's unusually respectful letter urged her to support the Reformation and overthrow the church hierarchy. Mary took the letter as a joke and ignored it.

Return to Geneva

Shortly after Knox sent the letter to the queen regent, he suddenly announced that he felt his duty was to return to Geneva. Historians have puzzled over this as he was at the height of his influence with the Scottish nobility. A seemingly obvious reason was that in the previous year on 1 November 1555, the congregation in Geneva had elected Knox as their minister. However, the congregation was already well-served by another minister, Christopher Goodman, and Whittingham, Knox's friend from Frankfurt, served as elder. It may had been that he sensed personal danger or that he had realised that true reform would never occur under the power of a weak queen regent. He wrote a final letter of advice to his supporters and left Scotland with his wife and mother-in-law. He arrived in Geneva on 13 September 1556.

The Auditoire de Calvin where Knox preached while in Geneva, 1556–1558

For the next two years, he lived a happy life in Geneva. He recommended Geneva to his friends in England as the best place of asylum for Protestants. In one letter he wrote:

In my heart, I could have wished, yea, and cannot cease to wish, that it might please God to guide and conduct yourself to this place, where I neither fear nor eshame to say, is the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles. In other places I confess Christ to be truly preached; but manners and religion to be so sincerely reformed, I have not yet seen in any other place beside.

Knox led a busy life in Geneva. He preached three sermons a week, each lasting well over two hours. The services used a liturgy that was derived by Knox and other ministers from Calvin's Formes des Prières Ecclésiastiques. The church in which he preached, the Église de Notre Dame la Neuve—now known as the Auditoire de Calvin—had been granted by the municipal authorities, at Calvin's request, for the use of the English and Italian congregations. Knox's two sons, Nathaniel and Eleazar, were born in Geneva, with Whittingham and Myles Coverdale their respective godfathers.

The title page of The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women from an eighteenth century edition

In the summer of 1558, Knox published his best known pamphlet, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. In calling the "regiment" or rule of women "monstrous", he meant that it was "unnatural." The pamphlet has been called a real classic of misogyny. Knox states that his purpose was to demonstrate "how abominable before God is the Empire or Rule of a wicked woman, yea, of a traiteresse and bastard". The women rulers that Knox had in mind were Mary Tudor, the queen of England, and Mary Stuart, the queen of Scotland. Knox's prejudices against women were not unusual in his day; however, even he was aware that the pamphlet was dangerously seditious. He therefore published it anonymously and did not tell Calvin, who denied knowledge of it until a year after its publication, that he had written it. In England, the pamphlet was officially condemned by royal proclamation. The impact of the document was complicated later that year, when Elizabeth Tudor became queen of England. Although Knox had not targeted Elizabeth, he had deeply offended her, and she never forgave him.

With a Protestant on the throne, the English refugees in Geneva prepared to return home. Knox himself decided to return to Scotland. Before his departure, various honours were conferred on him, including the freedom of the city of Geneva. Knox left in January 1559, but he did not arrive in Scotland until 2 May 1560, owing to Elizabeth's refusal to issue him a passport through England.

Revolution of 1560 and the Scottish Reformation

Two days after Knox arrived in Edinburgh, he proceeded to Dundee where a large number of Protestant sympathisers had gathered. Knox was declared an outlaw, and the queen regent summoned the Protestants to Stirling. Instead they withdrew to Perth, a walled town that could be defended in case of a siege. At the church of St John the Baptist, Knox preached a fiery sermon and a small incident precipitated into a riot. Knox sent for reinforcements.

The queen regent gathered those nobles loyal to her and a small French army. She despatched Archibald Campbell and James Stewart, to offer terms and avert a war. She promised not to send any French troops into Perth if the Protestants evacuated the town. The Protestants agreed; but when Mary entered the town, she garrisoned it with Scottish soldiers on the French pay roll. This was seen as treacherous by Campbell and Stewart, who switched sides and joined Knox, who now based himself in St Andrews. With Protestant reinforcements arriving from neighbouring counties, the queen regent retreated to Dunbar. By 30 June, the Protestants had occupied Edinburgh, though they were only able to hold it for a month. On 1 July, Knox preached from the pulpit of St Giles', the most influential in the capital.

Knox preaching to the Scottish nobles in a painting by Sir David Wilkie

Knox knew that the queen regent would ask for help from France. So he negotiated by letter with William Cecil, Elizabeth's chief advisor, for English support. Knox sailed to Holy Island, off the northeast coast of England, on his way to meet Cecil for secret negotiations in Lincolnshire. He was recognised, however, and returned to Scotland after brief talks with the governor of Berwick. When additional French troops arrived in Leith, Edinburgh's seaport, the Protestants responded by taking Edinburgh. This time, on 24 October, the Scottish nobility formally deposed Mary of Guise from the regency. Her death in Edinburgh castle on 10 June 1560 paved the way for an end to hostilities, the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh, and the withdrawal of French and English troops from Scotland. Knox held a National Thanksgiving Service at St Giles'On 19 July.

On 1 August, the Scottish Parliament met to settle religious issues. Knox and five other ministers were called upon to draw up a new confession of faith. Within four days, the Scots Confession was presented to Parliament, voted upon, and approved. A week later, the Parliament passed three acts in one day: the first abolished the jurisdiction of the pope in Scotland, the second condemned all doctrine and practice contrary to the reformed faith, and the third forbade the celebration of Mass in Scotland. Knox and the other ministers were given the task of organising the newly reformed church or kirk.

Knox's wife, Marjorie, died in December 1560, leaving Knox to care for their two sons, aged three and a half and two years old. John Calvin, who had lost his own wife in 1549, wrote a letter of condolence.

Parliament reconvened on 15 January 1561 to consider the Book of Discipline, the document describing the organisation of the reformed Kirk, that Knox and the other ministers had prepared. The Kirk was to be run on democratic lines. Each congregation was free to choose or reject their own pastor; but once he was chosen, they could not fire him. Each parish was to be self-supporting, as far as possible. The bishops were replaced by ten to twelve "superintendents". The plan included a system of national education based on universality as a fundamental principle. Certain areas of law were placed under ecclesiastical authority. The Parliament did not approve the plan, however, mainly for reasons of finance. The Kirk was to be financed out by the patrimony of the Roman Church in Scotland. Much of this was now in the hands of the nobles, who were reluctant to give up their possessions. A final decision on the plan was delayed because of the impending return of Mary Stuart, the queen of Scotland.

Knox and Queen Mary

On 19 August 1561, cannons were fired in Leith to announce Queen Mary's arrival in Scotland. When she celebrated Mass in the royal chapel at Holyrood five days later, it prompted a protest in which one of her servants was jostled. The next day she issued a proclamation that there would be no alteration in the current state of religion and that her servants should not be molested or troubled. Many nobles accepted this, but not Knox. The following Sunday, he protested from the pulpit of St Giles'. As a result, just two weeks after her return, Mary summoned Knox.

On 4 September occurred the first of several interviews between Knox and Mary over the next three years, of which Knox has left the only accounts. Mary, familiar with Knox's writings against female rule, asked him whether he thought she had a just authority. Knox anwered that if the realm approved her rule, he would be as content to live under her "as St Paul was to live under Nero". When Mary asked him whether subjects had a right to resist their ruler, he replied: "If Princes exceed their bounds and do against that wherefore they should be obeyed, it is no doubt but they may be resisted, even by power".

Stained glass window of John Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots.

The most dramatic interview between Mary and Knox took place on 24 June 1563. Mary summoned Knox to Holyrood after hearing that he had been preaching against her proposed marriage to Don Carlos, the son of Philip II of Spain. Mary began by scolding Knox, then she burst into tears. "What have ye to do with my marriage?" she asked, and "What are ye within this commonwealth?" "A subject born within the same, Madam," Knox replied. He noted that though he was not of noble birth, he had the same duty as any subject to warn of dangers to the realm. When Mary started to cry again, he said, "Madam, in God's presence I speak: I never delighted in the weeping of any of God's creatures; yea I can scarcely well abide the tears of my own boys whom my own hand corrects, much less can I rejoice in your Majesty's weeping." He added that he would rather endure her tears, however, than remain silent and "betray my Commonwealth". At this, Mary ordered him out of the room.

Knox's final encounter with Mary was prompted by an incident at Holyrood. While Mary was absent from Edinburgh on her summer progress in 1563, a crowd forced its way into her private chapel as Mass was being celebrated. During the altercation, the priest's life was threatened. As a result, two Calvinists were scheduled for trial on 24 October 1563. In order to defend these men, Knox sent out letters calling nobles to convene in order to discuss the matter. Mary obtained one of these letters and asked her advisors if this was not a treasonable act. Knox defended himself in front of Mary and the privy council. He argued that he had called a legal, not an illegal, assemby as part of his duties as a minister of the Kirk. After he left, the councillors voted not to charge him with treason.

Final years in Edinburgh

St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, where Knox served as minister from 1560 to 1572

On 26 March 1564 Knox stirred controversy again, when he married the daughter of an old friend, Andrew Stewart, a member of the Stuart family and a distant relative of the queen, Mary Stuart. The marriage was unusual because he was a widower of fifty, while the bride, Margaret, was not yet seventeen. Very few details are known of their domestic life. They had three daughters, Martha, Margaret, and Elizabeth.

Nothing is known of Knox's activities for the next fourteen months. He was silent when Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. He did not take an active role in the General Assembly. A possible explanation is that he was old and had worked himself out. He is next noted preaching in the presence of the new king consort on 19 August 1565, when his passing allusions to the royal couple caused Darnley to walk out. Knox was summoned and prohibited from preaching while the court was in Edinburgh.

On 9 March 1566, Mary's secretary, David Rizzio, was murdered by followers of Darnley. Mary escaped from Edinburgh to Dunbar and by 18 March returned with a formidable force. Knox fled to Kyle in Ayrshire, where he completed the major part of his magnum opus, History of the Reformation in Scotland.

Knox launched one final campaign against Mary. When he returned from Kyle, he found the Protestant nobles divided over what to do with her. By now, she had abdicated and was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. Knox's old friend James Stewart had become the regent of James VI. Other old friends of Knox's, Archibald Campbell and William Kirkcaldy, stood by Mary. On 29 July 1567, Knox preached James VI's coronation sermon at the church in Stirling. Mary's life was spared, and she escaped on 2 May 1568. During this period Knox thundered against her in his sermons, even to the point of calling for her death.

The fighting in Scotland continued. James Stewart was assassinated on 23 January 1570. The next two regents were also victims of violence. On 30 April 1571, the controller of Edinburgh Castle, Kirkcaldy, ordered all enemies of the queen to leave the city. But for Knox, his former friend and fellow galley-slave, he made an exception. If Knox did not leave, he could stay in Edinburgh, but only if he remained captive in the castle. Knox chose to leave, and on 5 May he left for St Andrews. He continued to preach, spoke to students, and worked on his History. At the end of July 1572, after a truce was called, he returned to Edinburgh. Although by this time exceedingly feeble and his voice faint, he continued to preach at St Giles'.

After inducting his successor, Lawson of Aberdeen, as minister of St Giles' on 9 November, Knox returned to his home for the last time. With his friends and some of the greatest Scottish nobles around him, he asked for the Bible to be read aloud. On his last day, 24 November 1572, his young wife read from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. A testimony to Knox was pronounced at his grave in the churchyard of St Giles' by James Douglas, the Earl of Morton and newly-elected regent of Scotland:

Here lies one who neither flattered nor feared any flesh.

Legacy

Knox claimed in his will, "None have I corrupted, none have I defrauded; merchandise have I not made." The evidence that Knox did not profit from his work in the reformation of the Kirk could be seen in the paltry sum of money that was bequeathed to his family which would have left them in dire poverty. However, James Douglas requested the General Assembly that they continue to pay Knox's stipend to his widow for one year after his death and the regent, himself, made certain that his dependents were decently supported.

Portrait of Knox from Theodore Beza's Icones

Knox was survived by his five children and his second wife. His two sons of his first wife, Nathaniel and Eleazar, moved to England where their mother’s family resided and died without issue. His second wife, Margaret, remarried to Sir Andrew Ker, a supporter of the Reformation. His three daughters also married: Martha to James Fleming, a minister of the Kirk, Margaret to Zachary Pont, son of Robert Pont and brother of Timothy Pont, and Elizabeth to John Welsh, also a minister of the Kirk.

An encounter which demonstrates the legacy of John Knox was recorded between Knox's daughter, Elizabeth, and James VI who had by then become James I, the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Her husband, John Welsh, had became a reformer in his own right and a successful preacher in France. Near the end of his life in 1622, he endeavoured to return to Scotland. The King, however, had been pressing to reestablish the episcopacy in the Kirk and refused to give him permission to return. Elizabeth petitioned the King to grant him this liberty. James knew about her famous father and when Elizabeth was introduced to him, he exclaimed, “Knox and Welsh! The devil never made such a match as that.” He then asked her about Knox’s children and when she replied that he had three daughters, James cried out, “God be thanked!”, while lifting up both his hands and said, “for an they had been three lads, I had never enjoyed my three kingdoms in peace.”

Knox may be called an important figure in Europe. His five years work in England and his stay in Frankfurt and Geneva strongly influenced the Puritan movement. However, it was due to his work in Scotland that he could take his place among the great characters of history. The revolution of 1560 was not only a reformation of a religion, but also a change from princely authority to individualism. He has been compared to other great reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. His final legacy is that he is considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination whose members number in the millions worldwide.

Selected works

• An Epistle to the Congregation of the Castle of St Andrews; with a Brief Summary of Balnaves on Justification by Faith (1548)
• A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry (1550)
• A Godly Letter of Warning or Admonition to the Faithful in London, Newcastle, and Berwick (1554)
• Certain Questions Concerning Obedience to Lawful Magistrates with Answers by Henry Bullinger (1554)
• A Faithful Admonition to the Professors of God’s Truth in England (1554)
• A Narrative of the Proceedings and Troubles of the English Congregation at Frankfurt on the Maine (1554–1555)
• A Letter to the Queen Dowager, Regent of Scotland (1556)
• A Letter of Wholesome Counsel Addressed to his Brethren in Scotland (1556)
• The Form of Prayers and Ministration of the Sacraments Used in the English Congregation at Geneva (1556)
• The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558)
• A Letter to the Queen Dowager, Regent of Scotland: Augmented and Explained by the Author (1558)
• The Appellation from the Sentence Pronounced by the Bishops and Clergy: Addressed to the Nobility and Estates of Scotland (1558)
• A Letter Addressed to the Commonalty of Scotland (1558)
• On Predestination in Answer to the Cavillations by an Anabaptist (1560)
• The History of the Reformation in Scotland (1586–1587)

References

Primary sources

• Laing, David, ed. (1895), The Works of John Knox, Edinburgh: James Thin, 55 South Bridge.
• Melville, James (1829), Diary of James Melville, Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club.
• Raine, James (1853), Wills and Inventories from the Registry of the Archdeaconry of Richmond: Extending Over Portions York, Westmorland, Cumberland, and Lancaster., Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sons, Last accessed 2007-07-28.

Secondary sources

• Brown, Peter Hume (1895), John Knox, London: Adam and Charles Black.
• Guy, John (2004), My Heart is my Own, London: Fourth Estate.
• Innes, A. Taylor (1905), John Knox (Quater-centenary ed.), Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier.
• Kingdon, Robert M. (1995), "Calvinism and resistance theory, 1550-1580", in Burns, J.H. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450-1700, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521477727.
• MacGregor, Geddes (1957), The Thundering Scot, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
• Mackenzie, The Reverend James (1888), The History of Scotland, London: T. Nelson and Sons.
• McCrie, Thomas (1850), Life of John Knox (New ed.), Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons.
• Percy, Lord Eustace (1964), John Knox (2nd ed.), London: James Clarke & Co., Ltd..
• Ryrie, Alec (2006), The Origins of the Scottish Reformation, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Warnicke, Retha. M. (2006), Mary Queen of Scots, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-29183-6.
• Whitley, Elizabeth (1960), Plain Mr. Knox, London: Skeffington & Son Ltd..